Your Customers are Digital – Are You?

According to Forrester we are in the Age of the Customer, and it’s certainly no secret in the world of customer experience that consumers expect to be able to engage with businesses at the time and through the channel of their choice while also receiving consistent and accurate information regardless of touchpoint. Implementing a seamless, end-to-end, omnichannel experience is no longer an elective. It’s an imperative to remain competitive in today’s marketplace. Yet, many organizations struggle to overcome the challenge of implementing a successful strategy.

Today’s customers truly are mobile, social and digital. They increasingly expect self-service options and want to be in control of how and when they reach out to brands. In order to be successful, organizations must recognize this and use that knowledge to develop their customer engagement strategies. Let’s take a look at some important steps organizations can take in order to achieve the necessary digital transformation.

Optimize the customer experience rather than the channel experience – Approaching contact channels in isolation hinders the ability to create a seamless, channel-neutral customer experience. Every channel must be tied back to the core goals of the overall customer experience strategy to avoid making the experience feel disjointed.

Minimize customer effort– Customers don’t want to contact companies for support and, when they do, resolution should be made as painless as possible. Organizations can reduce customer effort by creating robust contact channels, removing long wait times and eliminating the need for customers to repeat information when switching between channels.

Recognize that customer value and organizational value move in tandem– The inefficient and illogical practices that frustrate customers are also the ones that often result in costly service interactions for the business. Organizations should invest in cost-efficient methods of customer service if they also provide low-effort interactions and quick resolutions that result in a positive customer experience.

Know that knowledge is key – Viewed as the “crown jewel” of customer management, an effective knowledge management system is key. Customers don’t want to impose channel limitations on themselves so businesses need to be able to provide consistent, accurate and personalized experiences across channels.

Understand that multi-channel involves an adaptive consciousness – The customer journey is constantly evolving, and so organizations must adopt a mindset that will allow them to evolve with their customers. Providing successful omnichannel support is about delivering effective, efficient service on the terms of today’s customers.

You can learn more about these five steps as well as see real “Success in Practice” examples in the whitepaper co-produced by Call Center IQ and Creative Virtual, The Digital Imperative: 5 Essential Steps for Engaging Today’s Customer. It’s time to put your business on the right track to efficient and complete engagement with each customer regardless of channel or touchpoint – or risk being left behind.

Mandy Reed

Marketing Manager (Global)

Mandy Reed joined the Creative Virtual team in 2008 and currently manages the company’s marketing activities in the UK and coordinates efforts with the international locations. She has experience in marketing, direct sales, recruitment, case management and ethnographic research, and has also worked with children and youth in a variety of educational and mental health settings. Mandy holds a BS in Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a MSc in Anthropology from Brunel University. She can often be found analysing the customer experiences of family and friends as inspiration for her next blog post and, when not on the clock, enjoys travelling, spoiling her niece and nephew, and indulging in a bit (or sometimes a lot!) of retail therapy.